The seventh project meeting was held on July 8-11, 2017 at the Cherkassy State Technological University, in the framework of the project “Water Harmony Erasmus +”. Representatives of 10 partner universities from Germany, China, Norway, Poland, Sri Lanka and Ukraine took part.
According to the agenda of the meeting, was negotiated administrative issues related to finances, contracts, reports, progress report for the EACEA, development of training materials for six training courses, as well as the use of the Canvas platform for distance learning. Partners from Germany (UAS) took the responsibility for preparation of guidelines for the laboratory courses until the beginning of the autumn.
In discussion about improving cooperation between universities and enterprises, the analysis of existing experience of cooperation was made, selected best practices by taking into account the answers to the following questions: “What is the best way to establish contacts with enterprises?”, “What is the most beneficial form of cooperation with enterprises?” and “How to initiate and conduct contract research?”. According to responses of all participants, was prepared a rating questionnaire for identifying the current state at universities, where everyone could describe when and how he used the methods given in the questionnaire. The results of the analysis will be available on our website in the near future.
Each project meeting of the project “Water Harmony Erasmus +” is characterized by open lectures for students and teachers on various topics related to water issues. This time the seminars were held in the Cherkasy Oblast State Administration and were called “Water in a Changing World” and “Water: from challanges to opportunities”. Students and teachers had the opportunity to listen to the following lectures:
- What is wastewater? Prof. Lihua Cheng, QTU (China);
- Climate change impacts on water resources – adaptation for enhancing resilience, Prof. S B Weerakoon, UoP, Sri Lanka;
- Process control in water management, Dr. Olga Sanginova, NTUU KPI, Ukraine
- Project examples for resource orientated sanitation systems, Prof. Martin Oldenburg, UAS, Germany;
- Challenges & possibilities of Erasmus, Prof. Andrzej Zolnowski, UWM, Poland;
- Introduction to Entrepreneurship, Prof. Harsha Ratnaweera, NMBU, Norway;
You can get acquainted with materials of seminars by the following link.
The official part of the meeting was held in the press-center of the Cherkasy state administration with the participation of the First deputy head of the administration Vitaly Koval, the rector of the ChSTU Oleh Hrygor, the heads of departments, journalists. Mr. Koval noted the importance of the project for the region, as it concerns two of the most important areas included in the “Development strategy of the region until 2020 “, which are environmental protection and human development. The project coordinator Prof. Harsha Ratnaweera thanked to the representatives of the regional authorities for the comprehensive support of the project and for supporting of the Department of Chemical Technologies and Water Treatment of the ChSTU.
In one of the blocks of the meeting students of ChSTU, who visited the summer school “Water Harmony” at the Norwegian University of Natural Sciences, made the presentation. Participants of the mobility shared their impressions of the educational process, study trips to Svalbard and city Be, excursions to the water and wastewater treatment plants of Norway, as well as their free time spending with participants from other countries.
In addition to students from Ukraine, students from Poland Marlena Skrobisz and Artur Wiktorski shared their experience of participating in the project on student mobility, who from March 1, 2017, have been studding in ChSTU. They told about the experimental part of the work in four areas related to water, namely: coagulation, ozonization, electroactivation, ion exchange in a continuous acting unit. Based on the results of the studies, the students prepared a report.
Until the end of this year, the project provides a number of activities for students and teachers mobility:
- По 2 студента от каждого украинского университета-партнера проекта с октября 2017 года отправятся на годовое стажировку в университет University of Applied Science (Германия) и University of Warmia and Mazury in Olshtyn (Польша).
- 6 teachers (2 from NMBU, UAS, UWM) in October 2017 will visit the KPI named after Igor Sikorsky to exchange experience and improve pedagogical practices, and six teachers from Ukrainian universities (USCTU, KPI, ChSTU) will learn from their colleagues at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn.
- 2 students from each Ukrainian partner-university will be departed for an annual internship to the University of Applied Science (Germany) and the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olshtyn (Poland) since the 1st of October 2017.
At the end of the working meeting, important issues were discussed: involving partners in joint research, mentoring in the preparation of scientific papers, and publishing joint publications. The rector of the Ukrainian State University of Chemical Technology (Dnipro), Alexander Pivovarov, invited all the colleagues to join the editorial board of specialized scientific magazines, which are published by the USCTU.
This year, colleagues will meet again in the next project meeting, which will be held in Jinan (China) in late October.
